John Paul baseball's quest for a three-peat halted by FW Christian

Centurions had won previous two TAPPS 4A state titles

WACO - John Paul's quest for three consecutive state championships appeared to be picking up steam in the early innings Friday afternoon.

Alas, that proved to be a false positive for the Centurions, with their reign atop the TAPPS Class 4A ranks coming to a halt.

Fort Worth Christian took control with four fifth-inning runs en route to a 6-2 victory over John Paul in their state semifinal at the Waco ISD Sports Complex.

The Centurions (25-11) fell two victories short in their run to become the first South Texas team to win three consecutive state championships. Meanwhile, Fort Worth Christian (32-6) gets a date with Midland Christian (26-8), a 6-3 winner over Austin Hyde Park Baptist, in today's 4A final in Belton.

"We kind of did what everybody didn't think we'd do," Centurions senior pitcher Adrian Silguero said. "A lot of people told us we didn't have enough depth in our hitting and pitching to come back. I'm happy with what we did to prove everybody wrong that we could do it."

For four innings, it appeared a third straight title-game appearance was in the cards for John Paul.

The Centurions jumped on Cardinals starter Teddy Stankiewicz — whose presence attracted a dozen major-league scouts — for two runs in the second inning.

After one-out singles from Rick Martinez and Bobby Puentes, Mark Saldana brought in the first run with a double inside the third-base line. Justin Rivera followed with an RBI single to double the Centurions' lead.

The Cardinals got a run back in the third on Ryan Arison's two-out RBI single before finally breaking through against Silguero in the fifth.

After consecutive singles to open the frame, Brandon Keck's one-out sacrifice fly knotted the score.

Silguero, however, couldn't get out of the inning without further damage, as Arison and Sterling Maness notched RBI singles and another run scored via a wild pitch.

"You have to blame me on this one," Centurions coach Steve Castillo said. "When I saw Adrian was losing his (velocity), I was going to change him, but I got talked out of it. That's my fault.

"In the (third) inning, he really ran out of gas when they scored the one run. I asked him how he was doing and I should've changed him. That's on me."

The Cardinals added their final run in the sixth. Brett Jackson doubled with one out and scored on another Silguero wild pitch.

That lead was more than enough for Stankiewicz. The Arkansas signee is considered a leading draft prospect this year and after getting dinged in the second, he settled down and allowed only four hits in his final four innings. He struck out eight, including six in the final four frames.

"I usually don't really think about (giving up runs) too much, just that they're hits and you've got to go for the next pitch," Stankiewicz said. "That's what I did. Just stay calm on the mound and if you let it get to you, it's going to (lead to) more runs."

For John Paul's 16 seniors, the end was bittersweet, but Castillo pointed to the big picture for the fledgling program.

"It's hard to do what these kids did," Castillo said. "They set a precedent for our school and for the younger kids who are coming back.

"We got eight hits against a kid who's going to be drafted. You saw all the scouts who were here. We did all right."